The New Pornographers Delight Webster Hall with Album Milestone on Saturday
The New Pornographers – Webster Hall – December 4, 2021
The year was 2005. YouTube was founded by a trio of ex-PayPal coworkers. George W. Bush assumed his second term and Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. On the fateful day that hurricane made landfall, the New Pornographers’ third studio album, Twin Cinema, was released. Pitchfork ranked it No. 150 on its Top 200 Albums of the 2000s and No. 18 on its 50 Best Indie Rock Albums of the Pacific Northwest. In honor of the album’s 16th anniversary, the band has taken Twin Cinema and their debut album, Mass Romantic (which turned 21 last month) for a celebratory tour. They arrived Friday night at Webster Hall to play their first album, followed by Twin Cinema on Saturday.
Webster Hall was overflowing with fans on Saturday night. Barreling through the opening track, “Twin Cinema,” the acclaimed power-pop outfit ran through their seminal album track by track. Band leader Carl Newman exclaimed, “You all look the same,” which was received heartily from the largely Gen X crowd. Before her backing vocals duties on “The Bleeding Heart Show,” Neko Case added to the between-song banter, offering that she appreciated the tour so she could wear her “ugliest pants.” It was Dan Bejar who received the warmest welcome as sang lead on “Jackie, Dressed in Cobras.” Frontman Newman playfully remarked that folks see him but aspire to be Dan. Bejar returned onstage several times for “Broken Breads” and “Streets of Fire” to the delight of the crowd. It’s rare that a band plays an album straight through, as lesser-known tracks are often relegated to rarely being rarely played live (or not at all). “Falling Through Your Clothes” was admittedly a song the band “used to give up on” and, similarly, “Star Bodies” is a song the New Pornographers can now hear themselves more on more readily. It’s indicative of what 16 years as a band can produce live.
After playing the entirety of Twin Cinema, the supergroup returned for another hour-long set, kicking it off with fan-favorite “Myriad Harbour,” off their fourth studio album, Challengers. Moving forward and backward through their catalog, the longtime collaborators seamlessly rotated between songs displaying a prowess only musicians playing for years can develop, a camaraderie and vocal unison aged through time. —Sharlene Chiu | @Shar0ck
Photos courtesy of Maggie V. Miles | @Maggievmiles
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